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I bought an interesting book on snuff bottles yesterday published by National Palace Museum in Taipei in 2012 titled "Lifting he Spirit and Body: The Art and Culture of Snuff Bottles".

The cover design is stylish and beautiful. The book showcases a significant collection of the museum's exhibits concentrated on but not limited to snuff bottles (also featured are snuff bottles, snuff dishes and some other snuff related apparatuses), many of which are rare imperial treasures.

Sorry if the picture quality is poor (I took them with my phone under insufficient lighting), I'll try to scan more pages to share with you all soon. For now, hopefully it's good enough for the snuff bottle box can be seen clearly...

I have that book as well. Being all in Chinese, it is not a lot of use, but the photos are nice. I think the 'mons' and the basic asymmetrical elegance give it a Japanese feel. But I agree with you.Best,Joey

The round, usually floral-decorated panels, which are heraldic (ie., showing Family crests, like that of the Tokugawa Shoguns, etc.), are called 'Mons'. I know they appear on Japanese objects, as European coats of arms appear on objects made for European nobles etc., but was not sure if they were also Chinese in usage.

If you look at #102, #105, and #110, in "Dragons", the late Robert Kleiner, calling them 'medallions', attributed them to the Chinese Court, copying Japanese 'Mons', and suggested that this was done from Kangxi onward.Best,Joey